Live Well | Learn Well aims to create a campus culture that values and promotes individual well-being and a healthy community for undergraduates at Columbia University. 

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Well-Being Resources

Organized in seven distinct categories, this catalog of resources brings together the current well-being support and services for undergraduate students at Columbia.

 

Progress of the Columbia-JED Campus Strategic Plan

Complete
January 2018

The JED Steering Committee forms 14 working groups to address the important areas of action identified in the JED Strategic Plan. Led by Dean James J. Valentini, chair of the JED Steering Committee, cross-functional teams are formed to begin to move the implementation of JED’s multi-year plan.

Complete
January 2018

The Student Health Advisory Committee, composed of undergraduate and graduate students from across schools, helps guide the redesign of Columbia Healths website.

Complete
February 2018

Columbia Health’s redesigned website launches, providing students a more user-friendly navigation and easy access to all resources and services.

Complete
April 2018

Columbia Health begins the Health Psychology Initiative, placing psychologists from Counseling and Psychological Services into Medical Services, to provide additional points of entry to mental health services.

Complete
April 2018

The Undergraduate Residence Hall Roof Door Security Project is launched to improve residence hall roof door security, balancing the need to restrict student access while maintaining emergency access functionality.

Complete
April 2018

Columbia Health launches the Behavioral Health Initiative, posting two Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) psychologists in Medical Services during select peak periods, allowing for seamless and expedited referrals to counseling for students visiting with their primary care provider.

Complete
April 2018

Committee begins to develop a health form that will allow identification of students with any significant history prior to their arrival at Columbia and allow proactive outreach from the relevant office to these students with connection to resources.

Complete
April 2018

Columbia University Public Safety partners on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s annual National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, a free service to the Columbia community to anonymously and at no cost turn in unused or expired prescription medication for safe disposal.

Complete
June 2018

ULifeline, a confidential mental health screening tool, launches for all students.

Complete
July 2018

A primary care case manager is dedicated to assist with Columbia Student Health History Form review, outreach and follow up.

Complete
July 2018

Gatekeeper Training is incorporated into the leadership training required of all student group leaders.

Complete
August 2018

Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) has an increased presence at New Student Orientation Program, including late night drop in hours, open tours of CPS spaces and participation in Columbia 101.

Complete
August 2018

An improved New Student Orientation Program experience is launched, with new training for student volunteers and leaders in order to build their capacity to support peers in distress and connect them to appropriate resources.

Complete
August 2018

Various Lerner Hall spaces are converted to student lounges and fun zones, including the 4th-floor lounges and Lerner ramp lounges.

Complete
August 2018

Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) staff is present in residence halls during the Fall 2018 New Student Orientation Program (NSOP), where they share information and personalized services. Orientation Leaders take their groups through Lerner 5 during NSOP, so new students can see the CPS facility.

Initiated
September 2018

Work begins to revise protocol that keep faculty, staff, students, parents, family members, alumni and other community members knowledgeable and appropriately informed of emerging concerns.

Initiated
September 2018

Work begins towards creating a simplified readmission pilot process for students returning from medical leave. The improved process will decrease the amount of time and travel previously required.

Initiated
September 2018

Work begins to formalize inter/intra school notification, ensuring all Columbia undergraduates receive timely notice of student emergencies.

Complete
October 2018

Live Well | Learn Well, a new wellness marketing campaign, launches its centralized website, with access to information on wellness resources across campus.

Complete
October 2018

First-year community lounges transition to being reservable by individual students as well as groups of students that are unaffiliated with a recognized student group.  Additionally, the John Jay Lounge piano is relocated to Broadway Hall.

Initiated
October 2018

Work begins to develop and update systems for ensuring the accuracy of emergency contact information for all students.

Initiated
October 2018

Work begins to establish protocols for identifying and communicating with impacted communities (residence hall, class/academic, affinity or identity-based, student employment/research, clubs, athletic teams, hometown, and other social networks).

Complete
October 2018

The National Prescription Drug Take Back semi-annual event takes place and is utilized by approximately 25 people.

Complete
October 2018

Communication on the launch of Live Well | Learn Well is sent to the undergraduate community.

Initiated
November 2018

Enhanced reporting is created to aid in identifying and communicating with the most-impacted communities. Additional work begins, in partnership with Undergraduate Student Life, to improve the accuracy of student group membership information so that all affected students can be reached.

Complete
November 2018

Columbia Health participates in the University student wellbeing survey.

Complete
November 2018

Main sources of student emergency contact information are identified, making it easier for staff to access them. Work begins to develop a centralized software system to eventually house student emergency contact information in one location.

Complete
November 2018

Following the launch of the comprehensive Health History form, 2,554 new students complete the form over the summer. A Registered Nurse Case Manager contacts any students who could benefit from further follow-up.

Initiated
November 2018

Enhanced reporting is created to aid in identifying and communicating with the most-impacted communities. Additional work begins, in partnership with Undergraduate Student Life, to improve the accuracy of student group membership information so that all affected students can be reached.

Complete
November 2018

More than 1,000 fleece blankets with the Live Well | Learn Well logo — as well as an accompanying resource card with the website’s URL —- are handed out to students.

Complete
December 2018

Work on a pilot weekly social/community-building programming series to increase opportunities for students to gather and connect begins.

Initiated
December 2018

Based on student feedback, work begins on rewriting the medical leave policies to clarify the readmission process.

Complete
December 2018

Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) introduces a meditation workshop, with staff from the Berick Center for Student Advising and Undergraduate Student Life being trained to run the workshops.

Complete
December 2018

Rather than host a week of programming, a month-long calendar of offerings occurred. Programs geared toward first-year transitions and students hoping to find connections included: Multicultural Affairs Open house/House Party, Students of Color @ Columbia Welcome Week (offered a Queer and Trans SOC Mixer, Mixed Mixer, Men of Color Alliance Opening and Women of Color Kick-off event, First-Gen Low-Income (FLI) @ Columbia Open House/Social, LGBTQ @ Columbia Open House and International @ Columbia Open House.

Complete
December 2018

New protocol is implemented to better streamline communication of emerging concerns, including improved message sequencing and more consistent messaging on social media platforms.

Complete
December 2018

Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) sees an 11 percent increase in visits from the last year.

Initiated
December 2018

Work begins on a Student Ambassador program in which appointed student leaders from all three undergraduate schools will serve as liaisons to Columbia Health, providing information about available services, helping connect students with resources and providing feedback that may be useful to Columbia Health in improving programs and in resolving problems students may encounter. 

Complete
December 2018

Staff members are identified and trained to serve as postvention response group.

Complete
December 2018

Twenty-two new student members join JED Working Groups, increasing overall student representation on the working groups to 43 percent of the JED Working Groups' membership.

Complete
December 2018

A Columbia Health Nurse Practitioner completes training and receives her waiver to be a Suboxone prescriber – a first among our peer universities.

Complete
December 2018

Columbia Health receives a $15,000 Irving Institute Collaborative and Multidisciplinary Pilot Research CaMPR Phase 1 Planning Grant funded by the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) for work on the dissemination and implementation of opioid education and Naloxone training on campus.

Complete
December 2018

Fall 2018 utilization of the screening tools ULifeLine and BASICS increases as a result of broader advertisement/promotions by Alice! Health Promotion and additional campus partners.

Complete
December 2018

The Columbia Recovery Coalition’s membership increases from seven to 33 members, resulting in two active weekly group meetings.

Complete
December 2018

All Core Curriculum faculty teaching first-years complete Gatekeeper Training.

Initiated
December 2018

Progress continues on the Undergraduate Roof Door Security Program, done in partnership with the FDNY. The initial phase, impacting East Campus and Broadway, is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

Initiated
January 2019

The working group begins to explore the feasibility of expanding out the survey tool to the larger student body at a later date.

Complete
January 2019

During winter break, additional furniture is placed into John Jay Lounge so that more students can sit comfortably and participate in programming in the community lounge.

Complete
January 2019

With student input, the committee finalizes Live Well | Learn Well branding.

Complete
January 2019

Postvention response group begins development of standard guidelines and procedures, with a draft completed by the end of March 2019. 

Complete
January 2019

Emergency communications protocol is evaluated and refined to reduce report time, increase transparency of messaging and enhance message delivery.

Initiated
January 2019

Work begins to identify alternatives to replace armed door closures.

Complete
January 2019

The Live Well | Learn Well website reaches 4,778 page views, with spikes occurring immediately after the website was announced and during finals. The most popular page is Resources, especially areas covering mental health and academic support.

Initiated
January 2019

Work begins on enhancements to the Live Well | Learn Well website, development of well-being dimensions, digital display screens across campus, a robust social media campaign and student-led events to spread the word.

Complete
March 2019

Within Medical Services, two new case manager positions are created, in order to oversee the Health History program moving forward. Both will begin during the Spring 2019 semester.

Complete
March 2019

Work begins to identify and train staff members to serve as school-based and departmental representatives for postvention response group.

Complete
April 2019

A survey and questions are developed to quantitatively measure student awareness of the existing life-skills programs identified in the Fall 2018 as well as to gauge student experiences in developing life skills at Columbia.  

Complete
May 2019

Gatekeeper Training continues to be provided to all faculty of the Core Curriculum.

Complete
May 2019

Following the expansion of dedicated staff support for student wellness for Columbia College and Columbia Engineering undergraduates, the School of General Studies creates a new associate dean of wellness position, which will offer additional support to students on medical leave and during the readmission process.

Complete
May 2019

Alice! Health Promotion begins work to host monthly puppy study breaks in Spring 2019 to enhance stress management, lower levels of stress and increase feelings of connectedness among students.

Complete
May 2019

Work begins on a new pilot program to encourage gathering and community-building that will begin in Spring 2019 and will include open times for students to informally gather in Lerner Central.

Complete
June 2019

As part of Columbia Health's new awareness campaign, posters are posted monthly in residence halls and academic buildings aimed at addressing the barriers to seeking care and myths about Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS).

Complete
September 2019

Leading into the 2019-20 Academic Year, 6,227 Health History Forms were submitted and reviewed by Columbia Health. A full-time Medical Services Case Manager and Associate Director of Nursing were responsible for screening all forms and connecting incoming students to resources within Columbia Health as indicated and needed.

Initiated
September 2019

In Fall 2019, twelve students who served as CU Well Peer Leaders were recruited to participate in the Peer Ambassador Network Pilot Phase 1. These students received training about the services offered through Columbia Health and an update on the strategic planning process. The ambassadors are advised by a Senior Health Promotion Specialist, who is also working with campus partners to build a long-term structure for the initiative.

Initiated
October 2019

Group continues to refine protocol, with increased collaboration & transparency with University partners.

Complete
October 2019

As part of the opioid research and naloxone training program, 630 members of the Columbia community now carry life-saving naloxone. The program has identified and trained members of the campus community — both students and staff — to recognize signs of an opioid overdose and administer lifesaving medication. The program met its year-one  training goal in just 9 weeks. Research continues as part of the phase 2 funding received through the Irving Institute CTSA at Columbia University pilot Collaborative and Multidisciplinary Pilot Research Awards (CaMPR).